JoBo’s Hot Dogs launched in downtown Greenville, N.C., in 2023 (Photo courtesy of Joe Spencer).
Carolina graduate Joe Spencer is frank about how the Blue Sky Scholars Program helped him pursue his unique dream.
By day, Joe Spencer ’22 is a full stack developer at a software company. But during fall and spring nights in downtown Greenville, North Carolina, you will find Spencer wearing an apron and signature cowboy hat as he happily serves up hot dogs to hungry customers.
Spencer is the proud owner of JoBo’s Hot Dogs, a hot dog stand and business venture that Spencer describes as a passion project, the seeds of which formed in his head after college graduation.
“I ate a lot of hot dogs both growing up and through college, maybe even too much,” Spencer said. “I knew carts existed in downtown Raleigh, and I thought it would be a fun idea to try in Greenville, where my fiancé is wrapping up her PhD. So I set out in fall of 2022 on this journey to learn the hot dog trade.”
An important first step enabling that journey was Spencer’s acceptance into the Blue Sky Scholars Program in the fall of 2019, when he was a sophomore. His family was going through financial difficulties at the time, and Spencer wasn’t sure if he could continue at Carolina. He contemplated living out of a car and finding food through charitable organizations, or just simply dropping out altogether to work full time. Fortunately, the program awarded its first scholarships that semester, and Spencer found out he had been selected.
“When I got word that I got the Blue Sky Scholarship, everything changed for me,” Spencer said. “I remember literally jumping out of bed with joy when I got the email notifying me that I was a Blue Sky Scholar.”
The financial support of the program, which was created to support students from middle income families, helped Spencer graduate debt free with a degree in computer science. It also made starting his own hot dog stand more than just a pipe dream.
“For sure, Blue Sky has enabled me to take the risks to launch my own small business and lifted weight off my shoulders that would have been cumbersome to carry both throughout my time at Carolina and after,” he said.
As Spencer was contemplating how to launch his business, he noticed a hot dog stand in a Lowe’s parking lot and decided that the best way to learn was by doing.
“So the same day I called the hot dog stand and asked for a job,” he said. “I like to call this my hot dog internship. I was there for about 3 months learning about techniques, toppings and tastings. I bought my hot dog cart in January of 2023. Taking the lessons I took from Blue Sky, I was able to cash flow the whole operation and launch debt free.”
At its core, JoBo’s operates by what one might call the golden rule of hot dogs. “Never price a hot dog more than I would personally pay, and make every hot dog like I am making it for myself” is how Spencer described his “hot dog philosophy,” adding that he has a heavy hand with toppings.
JoBo’s menu includes beef and red hot dogs, as well as a vegetarian-friendly pickle dog. The current best-seller is the pickle-beef combo dog loaded with all the toppings and condiments you want for $3. A JoBo Combo is not only fun to say, it comes with two dogs, chips and a drink for the very fair price of $8.
“Selling hot dogs isn’t about the money for me,” Spencer explained. “It’s almost a service to the people around me. We want to build connections with our customers and we want to remember names and favorite orders. We hand out waters for free when people need them on their way home from the bar. Perhaps this is bad hot dog business. But for JoBo’s, at the core a people business, it’s all good business.”
The Blue Sky Scholars Program helps talented students from middle-income families in North Carolina thrive at UNC while reducing or eliminating student loan debt. Please click here to support the Blue Sky Scholars Program.
Story by Drew Guiteras
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